


Traffic Stop

by helsinkibaby



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Age Difference, Community: comment_fic, F/M, Fluff, Pre Relationship, Rare Pair, case of mistaken identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-31 19:57:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10906395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Joe gets an unusual text message from Caitlin.





	Traffic Stop

**Author's Note:**

> Theme : free for all  
> Prompt :The Flash, Caitlin Snow/Joe West, “I sent a selfie of myself in the tub to the wrong number and you responded back with another selfie. Holy shit you’re really attractive.”  
> http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/812716.html?thread=103289516#t103289516
> 
> I may have gone more metaphorical than literal with this fill...

When Joe's cell phone chimed with a text alert on a Saturday afternoon, he wasn't overly concerned. If it was something to do with his official work and it was urgent, Singh would call him. If it was something to do with STAR Labs and it was urgent, Cisco had installed various alerts into his phone that made a hell of a lot more noise than the chime of a text message. It was far more likely to be something along the lines of Iris, inviting him over for dinner, or Barry, inviting himself and Iris over to Joe's house for dinner. Both of those had been happening with depressing frequency since his relationship with Cecile had ended and while he'd appreciated it at the start, a few months down the road, he wanted a little down time for himself, not to mention time for Barry and Iris to start actually planning this wedding he'd been dreaming about for years. 

All things considered, he figured ignoring the text message might be the best course of action, pretend he hadn't seen it and hope against hope they wouldn't send another, wouldn't call him. He would have done it too, he really would, kept reading his newspaper and not moved from the couch. 

Except that the first chime was followed quickly by a second, which was just as quickly followed up by a third. 

That was enough to pique his curiosity if not his concern and he stood, threw down the sports pages and crossed to the dining room table where he'd left his phone. 

The message wasn't from Barry, nor from Iris. It wasn't even from Wally. 

It was from Caitlin. 

Which was enough to make Joe blink in surprise, even before he read the actual text. 

"Emergency. I need your honest opinion. Which one should I buy?"

What followed were two pictures, both of Caitlin obviously taken in the mirror of a changing room. He could see the cell phone in her hand, though it was removed enough from her body that he had no trouble seeing the two dresses she was modelling. One was a deep shade of blue, the other a crimson red. Both stopped well short of the knee, both form fitting, showing off every curve of Caitlin's body. The blue dress was cut low in front, low enough to make Joe swallow hard, while the picture of her wearing the red dress had her standing slightly to the side, her long white hair pulled over one shoulder, allowing him to see the back of the dress, the tangle of laces that it consisted of, just enough pale skin visible underneath to let him know exactly what she wasn't wearing beneath the dress. 

He had to swallow hard at that thought too, found himself wishing it was five o'clock so he could pour himself a stiff drink. 

There was one question though - why the hell was Caitlin sending him pictures like that? 

As if she'd heard his question from across the miles, his phone began ringing in his hand and Caitlin's face - an old one from the early days of STAR Labs and Team Flash, where her hair was dark and she was laughing at something Cisco had said - flashed up. When he answered it with a simple, "Hello," the voice he heard in his ear was tinged with panic. 

"Ok, I can explain." 

He felt a smile tug at his lips, deciding to play dumb. "Explain what?" 

"You answered on the first ring so you must have your phone in your hand, which means you must have seen the messages I just sent you." 

He couldn't argue with her logic so he didn't. "I don't really have an opinion on-"

"They were meant for Iris." Which makes a lot more sense and he lets her continue. "But Cisco did something stupid with my phone and it's sorting the contacts by last name first and you're right beside each other and I clicked the wrong name because I've been clothes shopping all day and I'm so sick of changing rooms..." She stopped suddenly and he could almost hear her jaw clamp shut. "I sound like Felicity." 

That made him chuckle because he couldn't disagree with that either. It was most unlike Caitlin too, which made him curious enough to ask, "So what's the big occasion?" 

"My best friend from high school is having her bachelorette party and I have to go." She didn't sound particularly enthusiastic. "Which would be fine except her cousin is Lexi LaRoche." She said it like the name should mean something to him but it didn't. After a second's pause, she added, "Let's just say we never got along." 

"Ah." Joe had raised a daughter to adulthood on his own. He understood completely. 

"And I'm going there with a head of white hair, a reputation still in tatters after the particle accelerator explosion..." Her voice trailed off again and he heard her suck in a deep breath. "So, yes, I needed an opinion and I'm sorry I bothered you, I'll message Iris and let you get back-"

"The red." 

"What?" 

She sounded somewhere between confused and surprised, and Joe couldn't blame her. The words had shocked the hell out of him and he was the one who'd said them. Closing his eyes, knowing he was probably about to cross a line he had no business crossing, he went all in. "They both look great. But if what you want is to stop traffic? Get the red one." 

There was a silence at the other end of the line, long enough to make his throat tighten, make his cheeks burn even more than they already were. Finally she said, "Thank you." It was a softer voice than he was used to hearing from her, the kind of voice he hadn't heard from a woman in months and it made his mind go places it had no business going. Safer to sign off with a quiet - some might say husky - "You're welcome" - and hang up the phone, think no more about it. 

Until a few weeks later when Caitlin was out of town and his phone chimed again. This time the picture came first: her in the red dress and high heels, hair and make up done to perfection and while there was no traffic in the West living room, from the stutter his heart gave when he saw the picture, the dress had same effect on that. 

"Thought you might like to see the finished product," came the message afterwards and he pondered for only a moment before he raised his hand with one thumb up, snapped a selfie and sent it before he could change his mind. 

"Yep," he sent with it. "No traffic moving anywhere."

A smiley face was not long in coming back, then another message. 

"Maybe when I get home, you can see it in person?"

Once again, Joe's heart stuttered and he knew that, once again, he was about to cross a line. 

He sent back one word anyway. 

"Yes."


End file.
